Twenty-six African countries across the continent signed a deal in Cairo, Egypt earlier this month to create the continent’s largest free trade zone. The agreement, which still needs the parliamentary endorsement of each country, will link together 600 million people in three of the continent's development blocs: The Southern African Development Community (SADC), the East African Community (EAC), and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).

It was originally hoped that the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) would merge the three blocs into one transcontinental body. Although that goal was not achieved, the agreement will begin to capitalize on the continent’s recent 5% economic growth rates by reducing tariffs between signatory countries. The African continent has long been known for its plentiful resources, but in recent years countries have taken steps to operationalize profitable systems for agriculture and mining. Analysts project the deal will generate $1 trillion in economic activity and increase trade between African countries from 12 to 30 percent. The larger markets created by TFTA allow for goods to be manufactured on a cost-effective scale and also increases lender confidence in African markets. Analysts assert that the trade agreement needs to be supplemented with other growth-oriented initiatives to be successful, such as improved transportation infrastructure and more transparent institutions.

This multi-national agreement sets a precedent for the long awaited Pan-African trade union. This highly publicized goal of the African Union was formally discussed at the AU summit this month ahead of its tentative introduction in 2017.

The Maasai have revealed a sexual secret. For the past decade European women have been flocking to East Afrika. Apparently, through their grapevine they have discovered that Masai men are very good sexual partners. In fact, the Maasai are becoming a growing part of Tanzania's and Kenya's sexual tourism industries. While pedophile adult males from Europe and North America go to Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam to have sex with children, women from Europe and North America go to Afrika to have sex with young Afrikan men, sometimes quite young. So technically, these adult females are pedophiles as well. In Tanzania, Zanzibar has become their sexual paradise where they rent Afrikan “tour” guides that also provide sexual services. This is the real Afrikan safari to them. So now, what is this Masai sexual secret? Is it Kunyaza? Apparently not—it is in their circumcision method. Masai circumcision leave heavy skin hanging downwards around the penis, and this accomplishes two objectives: 1) it prolongs lovemaking enormously and 2) allows for much more vaginal friction. This is the Maasai secret. I wonder how many other Afrikan societies have foregone their traditional circumcision for the Western version done in modern hospitals. They might be being short changed, LOL!In a blog on 5/10/13, entitled Recovering Afrikan Sexuality I wrote:

In fact, my view on male circumcision, a practice which originated with Afrikans, is entirely at odds with Western explanations. I argue that one of its purposes was to be conducive to female orgasms. Data in the West seems to suggest women are more orgasmic with circumcised rather than with uncircumcised men. This could be entirely psychological, having little to do with circumcision, however, it is possible the sulcus (ridge of circumcised penis) make better contact stimulating the G-spot, potentially causing more vaginal stimulation. Studies state that circumcised men are just a sensitive as uncircumcised men. However, more recent studies indicate that uncircumcised men are more sensitive. Moreover, circumcision removes the foreskin of the penis leaving the glans exposed, which will develop a thick, dry layer of keratin (toughened skin), making it less sensitive to uninvited stimulation, but also less sensitive to the more subtle qualities of intercourse. Circumcision leaves a man less sensitive. Further, in removing the prepuce (foreskin) which served as a gliding mechanism, a man’s only source of stimulation is the glans rubbing against the wall of the vagina. The sensations derived from the specialized receptors of the frenar band, frenulum and inner foreskin layer are missing. So, from a male point of view we might perceive circumcision negatively, but here is the rub (pardon my pun) if in desensitizing the male, it allows his staying power, then you have actually done the female, and in reality the male, a favor if he is interested in pleasing his woman. All this is to say, that in Afrika, circumcision in lessening sensitivity slightly offers men greater penile control in order to satisfy women.

Havana performance artist, Susana Delahante held a black hair competition in Cuba this past weekend. Black and mixed-race women were invited to compete in three hair categories – natural, braided and dreadlocked. The two hour competition which had over 70 contestants was described as an effort to bolster pride within the Afro-Cuban community. Delahante states:“I wanted to do something that legitimized my hair, this undervalued type of hair.” According to the 2012 census, 64% of Cubans identified themselves as white, 23% as biracial and only 9.3% as black. Sociologists have stated the reason only a small amount of the Cuban population willingly identify as black is due to lingering prejudice. From the Wall Street Journal; 2009 estimates place the black or mixed population between 60% and 70% of Cuba’s citizens, but there are no officials of color in the upper echelons of Cuban leadership. The torture and humiliation Afro-Cuban dissidents face upon being arrested is often exacerbated by their skin color.

This is personal. Last night my wife spoke at a natural hair meet-up. When she made the comment that women straighten their hair for a range of reasons, which included self-hatred, it caused uproar. She wondered what lies she had told. When Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, the founder of physical anthropology, in the 1770s developed the modern racial hierarchy, he established a correlation between intelligence and skin color and other physical features. Initially, when Europeans established the various races of “mankind” the most strident racial markers that identified the Black race was our hair and skin color. Later nose and lip sizes were added but hair and skin were the main two. Our oppressors have made us feel ashamed of our hair texture and skin color. During enslavement, the enslaved population adopted a beauty standard that rejected themselves, and that of their oppressor; as a result, the person whose phenotype landed somewhere in the middle set the standards of beauty for the enslaved Afrikan. That person was the mulatto. So for clarification, the standards that contemporary Black folks emulate are not those of the white race per se, but of the mixed raced person. Today Afrikan people continue to struggle with these two phenotypical elements. The struggle is most evident in the woman but no less important among men. In the US during the first half of the 20th century it was not uncommon for both genders to wear straightened hairstyles. Although straightened hairstyles have nearly disappeared in the male population, though texturizers of various sorts continue to be used, and more and more natural hairstyles are popping up among females, nevertheless hair and skin color issues continue to dog the Afrikan world. On the continent and parts of the Caribbean, weaves and skin lightening creams are a growing industry. Today it is very common to hear people talk of hair and hairstyling as personal issues of choice. But they forget that that there is a history behind Black hair. Why do I say that in this “post-racial” world, hair and skin color issues continue to dog us? Well, many Black folks will not even admit that color prejudice is still an issue. Even in the natural hair “movement” mulatto textured hair is still the most desired type. More importantly, in the natural hair movement, so one want to say that the movement is about self-love and acceptance. Instead, it is just an individual choice. Sounds like the expected and anticipated line from a person that believes the world is post-racial. A comment coming from a person who is so disconnected from their history that they can not even see that their success is predicated on the historic struggles and progress that “Black” people fought and died for throughout history, and most recently in the Civil Rights/Black Power movement(s). It is no accident that hair and skin color issues continue to plague us. It was these two features that have defined us—the very font of our supposed inferiority. So whether a person is conscious aware of it or not, when there is an embracing or acceptance of self on this fundamental level—this bigger than the individual—it’s not personal but transpersonal. It is more than a personal statement—it is a racial one. White folks recognize it. This is why so many of them compliment or embrace you embracing your natural self. They are not embracing your hairstyle but you. A transformation that is occurring that is challenging your racial historical past and its aesthetics. (Apparently white men like it to as many of them are hooking up with sisters that are natural.) People see what you don’t see. So cut the bullshit! The next time some one what ask you why you went natural, don’t give them the lame, banal, knee-jerk answer. Go deeper and connect it to our past because it is part of it, whether you know it or not. And if you don’t know it, learn about it. Peace, Love, and Natural Hair Grease Seba Damani

The Dream of Europeans is to transform the whole continent into South Africa or Kenya, where a white minority owns and controls the local economy, while Africans are just good like consumers or their servants. The subject is uncomfortable but we need to talk about it, otherwise we will wake up with more Robert Mugabe who is doing a great job redressing centuries of white minority domination and exploitation of Zimbabwean people.Let’s take a look at South Africa, a country where the white minority makes less than 10% of the population but owns more than 80% South African lands and economy. They didn’t buy those lands.In South Africa 64% of top senior management positions are filled by whites. 90% of the board of the Central Bank is made of the white minority. 90% of media is in the hands of Whites, who control content, project whiteness (local South African adverts have a 85% White representation) and marginalize and exploit Africans, with the exception of Africans being 86% represented in alcohol adverts. 97% of mainstream South African films are owned, produced and directed by non-Africans.Africa without Africans is the dream of the local predatory, supremacist white minority. A recent report came to challenge the well spread idea that the West is pouring money into Africa through aid without receiving much in return. All in contrary, the report proved that Africa has lost up to $1.4 trillion in illicit financial flows to the West from 1980 to 2009. This amount is 233 times the 60 billions foreign “aid” Africa supposedly receives every year from the West.The illicit financial flows involve the transfer of money earned through corruption, bribes, tax evasion, criminal activities and transactions involving contraband goods. In the end, the report concluded that those illicit financial flow are fast growing and are far exceeding money coming into the continent, therefore seriously undermining the continent’s development.Now let’s be clear, those illicit financial flow are organized by the very same foreign people who claim they come to help build Africa, the same people you and me see and meet everyday in Africa. They might be your employers, your friends or neighbors but that doesn’t change the nature of who they are and what they are doing.Of course the local rich subalterns helping those folks got their big houses and cars, but Africa as a whole has no sustainable future with that model of development.This is not different from colonial times! but it’s nicely called “Africa is Rising”.“Multinational Corporations are the New Colonisers in Africa”wrote Lord Aikins Adusei60 years after the fictitious independence declarations, Africa is still controlled by European expatriates, oil companies, military forces, Banks, etc. Some Africans think that is good for Africa. They are the rich subalterns. Some others think Africans must free themselves from that European colonialism, and fight for more local ownership.Now, comes a country like Kenya, which was not under any apartheid system like South Africa, but most corporations in Kenya have whole foreign boards. Most the country economical assets are in the hand of a tiny white minority helped but a horde of local subalterns.A Kenyan friend shared with me the background tale: “One only needs to read about the origins and activities of the London Rhodesia Group (Lonrho) formerly run by Tiny Rowland to really appreciate the gravity of the situation in Africa. Lonrho perfected the art of acquiring valuable productive assets across the continent by targeting corrupt leaders with gifts and naive locals with confusing agreements and subterfuge.One of the greatest beneficiaries of this approach was former president Moi of Kenya who pretty much gave up much of the country’s agricultural and hospitality sector crown jewels in exchange for accounts in the Caymans and gifts for his entourage of sycophants. Think about the major economic activities in Africa – Mining, Oil, Agriculture, Banking,Telecoms – Then think of the companies carrying out these activities – DeBeers, Anglo Ashanti, Shell, BP, Exxon, Barclays, Stanchart, Vodacom, Del Monte…. Get the picture?Huge tracts of land in sub-saharan africa are owned by foreign agricultural companies paying low wages and repatriating the profits back to the western world in the form of dividends and management fees. The one country that is doing things a little different is Nigeria. A good number of Nigerian companies are bidding for oil services work in newly discovered oil fields in East and Central Africa and I am sure we all know about Aliko Dangote and his conglomerate of companies anchored by his cement production behemoth.” Concluded my friend.Another Kenya friend commented “I am not sure why. Part of it might be a little bit of the colonial mentality–thinking foreigners are better than Kenyans. Part of it might be the foreigners represent the interests of multinationals that have invested in these companies (certainly the case with subsidiaries of multinationals like Safaricom, Barclays, Standard Chartered et al).”A third Kenya came in “Look at modern Kenya today, sons of colonial chiefs and collaborators are now rulers and billionaires maintaining the status quo is genetically coded in them. Their children go to the best schools either in Kenya or abroad all run by the white, how can we redeem ourselves!”Another friend brought to our attention what is called White Code in Africa. He said“White people stand with the white code. They only praise Black people or go near Blacks who serve their interest.” The latter are in their medias, at their conferences, receive their Nobel prize and awards. This is how you know those who are working against the continent interest.

This isn't just another charitable celebrity contribution. This might be the most ambitious charitable endeavor ever. R&B singer Akon has launched an initiative aiming to bring electricity to 600 million people in Africa. The Akon Lighting Africa initiative has started the Solar Academy, which will help African engineers harness the sun's energy to produce electricity for the target of 600 million people. Considering that Africa gets an average of 320 sunny days in a given calendar year, this plan more than makes sense. But to say it's extensive and ambitious would be a giant understatement. The Academy will teach African residents how to install and maintain solar-powered electricity systems and micro grids to continually produce electricity. "We have the sun and innovative technologies to bring electricity to homes and communities. We now need to consolidate African expertise," Samba Baithily, a co-founder of the project, told Reuters. The hope is that the continent's population – 70 percent of which is under the age of 35 – will help boost the economy, provide opportunities to future generations and just flat-out increase the overall quality of life. According to multiple reports, Akon Lighting Africa has received a credit line of line of up to $1 billion from construction juggernaut China Jiangsu International and will begin work with the most low-resource, remote areas. Already revered in his native Senegal, Akon's level of love and respect worldwide will sky-rocket if his ambition generates massive results. Incredible effort.

An excerpt from my book Distorted Truths is in order here:

Afrika’s abundance of sunlight demands the development of solar energy. Every Afrikan government should dedicate research and development to this field of endeavor. The U.S.A. will have to develop solar energy for domestic, industrial and, if need be, military power. As we further industrialize, and our various nations begin to come together toward a unified Afrika, we will need to secure our resources. Consequently we will have little choice but to maintain military preparedness for defense against aggressor nations.

P.S. During the colonial era, European countries set up outposts in Afrika where they could get cheap labor and natural resources. And today Europeans build solar farms in Afrika, extracting sunlight from the Sahara to power high-tech cities in the north. If just one percent of the Saharan Desert were covered in concentrating solar panels it would create enough energy to power the entire world . . . The EU has a mission to take at least 20% of their entire energy from renewable resources by 2020. Last year they announced that they would lay a series of highly-efficient cables across the Mediterranean, build a series of solar power plants in the Sahara, and import renewable energy from across the sea. The initiative is being financed by a group of European companies and is supported by the EU government. The plan is to cover 6,500 square miles of the desert in photovoltaic systems and wind parks. Supposedly the energy-extraction could start as early as 5 years from now, but the project as a whole probably won't be finished until 2050. No word on how much of the energy from these solar farms will be used in Afrika.

It is obvious I considered myself an Afrikan centered thinker. A careful reading of my book will show that I have redefined what Afrikan centered means from a existential level. Since the publishing of Stolen Legacy by George G.M. James, it has become popular for Afrikan scholars to claim Greek philosophy as stolen Afrikan philosophy. My book Distorted Truths corrects this misunderstanding by explaining that Afrikan thought is cosmological not philosophical. In truth, the Greek philosophers were actually trying to develop cosmology but because of their worldview and culture were unable to. The chaotic and tumultuous societal conditions in Greece led certain of her thinkers to Kemet in an effort to improve their society. Kemet attracted them because of its rich wisdom literature, which included the Mer Texts, The Teachings of Imhotep, The Teachings of Ptahhotep, and The Teachings of Kagemni, as well as others. In addition to this tradition, Kemet had the physical artifacts, meru, hetu (temples) and art that verified the existence of knowledge. Before these men returned from Kemet, there was no such thing as a Greek philosopher or Greek philosophy. Thales is the founder of natural philosophy and it is obvious he was taught in Kemet. Thales taught the ideas of the unity of matter and the primacy of the element of water, ideas that he did not fully understand when he learned them in Kemet. Thales’ water is none other than the primeval waters of Nun. On one level, water is a symbol of the limitless, vital essence of life. The most obvious experience of human life that suggested this truth is fetal life. Additionally, water is present in blood, semen, milk, all of the vital fluids of life. Even the sun’s rays were perceived as water vapors. Through symbolism, water, a physical entity is raised to the level of a spiritual entity, thereby stressing the oneness of matter and spirit. Here we see Kemet’s cosmological idea relating to Nun, which is a metaphor of our zygotic existence, the space and time before birth (Creation), a biological reality being treated as an opinion by Greek philosophers. But this is not the only problem. On a deeper level, we discover that Nun is actually waves; its Medu Neter symbol is a sine wave, indicating that movement or force is the creative principle. The wave can also be seen as a sound wave. Thus, in the beginning was the Word. What led to philosophy was, the Greek thinkers returning home with knowledge from Kemet and then being unable to integrate that knowledge into their society. (In Kemet, the cosmology gave meaning and expression to social customs, institutions, art and architecture. Cosmology fully integrated the various aspects of society.) Greek philosophers gaining the seeds of knowledge were unable to plant them at home for a number of reason: these ideas were considered foreign and corrupting and attacked by the polis; in other instances, Greek philosophers misapplied the knowledge; however, most important, the Greek cultural infrastructure was unable to integrate Kemetic knowledge. Kemetic (Afrikan) society existed in a positive world where the human being’s purpose was to harmonious integrate existence. Conversely, the Greek worldview was pessimistic and assumed the world a place of conflict; this worldview that was antagonism to the Kemetic, prevented the integration of Kemetic knowledge into Greek society. In this cultural setting, Kemetic knowledge was subject to open-ended debate–this is the origin of philosophy, a degradation of cosmology. In Greece, it was common practice for an individual to develop his own version of a “myth.” Thus, Anaximander and Anaximenes were both students of Thales, but the former taught the Indefinite was the underlying principle of all things, while the latter identified it as air, yet Thales taught them it was water. Two students, one teacher, different ideas–here lies the origin of Greek philosophy.Various Greeks espoused different ideas because that was the Greek mentality. In Greece, it was common practice for an individual to develop his own version of a “myth.” Thus, Anaximander and Anaximenes were both students of Thales, but the former taught the Indefinite was the underlying principle of all things,while the latter identified it as air, yet Thales taught them it was water. Two students, one teacher, different ideas–here lies the origin of Greek philosophy.Various Greeks espoused different ideas because that was the Greek mentality. In Mande thought, particularly Dogon, the various levels of the cosmology also initially seemed incoherent to Griaule and his team. Yet with the Dogon and Bambara, the French realized these African people had clearly laid out developmental systems that led initiates toward self-knowledge. Even when the myths have different versions, they perfect themselves and remained unitary. “Strictly speaking, they [myths] do not comprise variants. . . they follow the indigenous development of the thought based upon mythical facts.” We maintain that given the Afrikan stress on unity, the Kemetic initiation system, like the Dogon, Bambara or any Afrikan system, reflected the inherent unity of the Afrikan cosmos. Thus, the Kemetic system was hierarchical and its teachings followed a definite progression. The Afrikan initiate must internalize or commit the myth to memory as in the case of the Griaule team. There is no arbitrary changing of “facts.” The Kemeyu, like other Afrikan people, use the observed laws of nature and the totality of human life and experience as foundations for their cosmological knowledge. Since the foundations of cosmology are constants, there will be little to no ideological or methodological variation within the reservoir of accumulated societal knowledge. Whereas philosophy lends itself to disagreement and debate, cosmology leaves no room for such divergences, because it always remains true to plant, animal, human, environmental, and astrological cycles and patterns. As these patterns do not change based on human perception or intellection, nor does cosmology. Moreover, these patterns and cycles have remained consistent from time immemorial and form the basis of Maat. This is not philosophical but based on the observed laws of the universe—hence cosmological.